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The Constitution’s Deep Roots
Legacy of the French Revolution.
This photograph, obtained under great difficulty, was taken in 1929. As was customary before France finally abolished the guillotine, the execution took place in an open
street at 5 a.m. This particular criminal was beheaded for a murder committed under
extremely cruel circumstances. (Courtesy of UPI/Corbis-Bettmann.)
be seen that ‘‘the revolution altered little in the internal organization of
the colonies, as it only dissolved the external connection, which the Americans must always have considered rather as a burden.’’
In contrast, the French Revolution was a true civil war. Its goal was not
to expel a foreign enemy, but to overthrow the government of France and
establish a new political order for all of Europe. As the Revolution progressed, its Jacobin rulers thought it necessary to erase all vestiges of the
past and abolish the ancient institutions of France without any clear understanding of what would replace them. They even abolished the calendar and renamed the days of the week. Professing equality and fraternity, they addressed each other as ‘‘citizen.’’ In a mad frenzy, they set out